


Panic Attacks and How to Stop Them - A Guide By Richie Tozier

by orphan_account



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Boys Kissing, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, First Kiss, Fluff, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, How Do I Tag, M/M, More Fluff, My First AO3 Post, Panic Attacks, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Soft Richie Tozier, a year after it chapter 1, its just a lot of fluff, richie’s trying okay, they’re like 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 01:16:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20788166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eddie stares, his eyes as big as dinner plates. All he can do is stare.Richie stares back, seemingly just a shocked as him. Like he had surprised even himself.It’s silent for a moment, before Richie swears under his breath and begins muttering, his voice quiet and nervous, his eyes darting all around the room, looking everywhere but at Eddie.“I- I, uh- I saw in this, well, it worked on Bev so I thought maybe... And I saw it in this book, as, like, a way to ‘ground someone’ or some shit... I thought- Shit, I’m so sorry Eds.”





	Panic Attacks and How to Stop Them - A Guide By Richie Tozier

Eddie was having a panic attack.

It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but it had been more and more frequent recently. The Losers had just shrugged it off, pretty used to Eddie being like this. Most of them thought it wasn’t even real, like his medication. Like it was all in his head. And to some extent, they weren’t really wrong.

It had started when he had sat down in class that morning. He had just put his books down when he heard a crashing noise behind him. Immediately, Eddie felt himself going into fight or flight mode. He spun around, preparing himself for the worst.

It had been a year since they had defeated Pennywise, and Eddie still felt like the clown was lurking in every shadow and down every alley. He was paranoid, to say the least.

But when Eddie’s eyes found the source of the noise, he was relieved to see some kid had just knocked over another kids chair. No balloons, no blood, no raspy voices, and no clowns. Eddie took a deep breath and looked back to the front.

The rest of the morning had been pretty boring. Stan was in his second class and Bev and Richie were in his third.

They met up with Bill, Ben, and Stan at lunch, and decided to walk downtown to meet Mike. He was still being homeschooled but today he was bringing some meat to the butchers so they planned to hang with him for a couple minutes.

They only got an hour off, so they were a bit rushed, but they had fun. Eddie, Richie, and Stan had just been messing around and Ben, Bev and Bill spent nearly the whole lunch trying to convince Mike to go to school with them.

When there was about 15 minutes left til the had to be back for school, Bev, Bill, Ben, and Stan left, Eddie and Richie still waiting in line for ice cream. Mike had to head home too, so it was just them. Eddie would have probably felt a bit more anxious if he had just been with one of the Losers, he always felt anxious when he was alone, but being with Richie was actually kind of soothing, in the weirdest way.

“Hey, Ed’s? Earth to Eddie?” Richie’s hand is waving in front of Eddie’s face and he snaps out of his thoughts, frowning at the nickname.

“Don’t call me that, dickweed, you know I hate it.” He grumbles, and Richie doesn’t even pretend to look offended.

“You love it, Ed’s.” He replies, winking. Eddie scoffs, but somewhere deep down, which he’d never admit _ever_, he knew Richie wasn’t wrong.

”Aww, are you blushing? Cute.” Eddie’s scowl deepens at his friends words, trying to ignore the warmth in his cheeks.

”Shut the fuck up.” 

Richie just laughs at that.

Then it happens again.

Eddie is halfway through ordering his ice cream when he sees it. His eyes lock onto it and he can’t look away, he can’t breathe, he can’t move. He’s completely frozen in shock.

He vaguely hears Richie questioning him before going silent, no doubt following Eddie’s gaze and seeing it too.

There, floating up higher and higher into the clouds is a red balloon, with the words ‘I **♡** Dairy’ clearly printed on the side. 

Eddie doesn’t remember what happens next, not really.

Somehow, though, he finds himself in one of the many alleyways he’s been so afraid of for the past year. He can see Richie standing in front of him, he can feel his hands on his shoulders, but he can’t breathe and he can’t think and his mind is screaming run, run, _run_.

He can’t hear what Richie is saying over the pounding of his own heart in his ears, and as the seconds (or minutes, or hours, he really can’t tell) pass, he feels more and more disconnected from the ground on his feet, the wall on his back, Richie’s hands on his shoulders, _himself_.

He’s spiralling and he doesn’t even realize he’s crying but his vision is blurred and he can’t think straight and he can’t tell which way is up and he’s falling, falling, falling-

And then everything stops. And suddenly, Eddie is hyper aware of everything he was numb to a second ago. The feeling of the bricks against his back, cement beneath his shoes, his friends hands on his shoulders, and Richie’s lips on his own...

Wait, _what?_

It takes a few seconds for Eddie to really process what is happening, but before he can even think to react, Richie’s pulling away from him. Their eyes meet.

Eddie stares, his eyes as big as dinner plates. All he can do was stare.

Richie stares back, seemingly just a shocked as him. Like he had surprised even himself.

It’s silent for a moment, before Richie swears under his breath and begins muttering, his voice quiet and nervous, his eyes darting all around the room, looking everywhere but at Eddie.

“I- I, uh- I saw in this, well, it worked on Bev so I thought maybe... And I saw it in this book, as, like, a way to ‘ground someone’ or some shit... I thought- _Shit_, I’m so sorry Eds...” His voice trails off and he still won’t meet Eddie’s eyes.

”Did you just- Did you just _kiss_ _me?”_ Eddie squeaks out, dumbfounded (but also feeling very warm and fuzzy inside).

”To stop your panic attack, yeah...” Richie’s voice is high pitched and clearly he’s anxious. When Eddie doesn’t respond, Richie does what he always does in awkward situations — resorts to comedy.

”Well, uh... Your mom’s a better kisser than you, you gotta step up your game, Doctor K.” He forces a laugh and Eddie almost rolls his eyes at his transparency.

”Oh my god, Richie, shut the fuck up.” Before Richie can even begin to think of a response, Eddie grabs him by the shirt and pulls the slightly taller boy toward himself.

Richie let’s out a quiet _oomf—_ when their lips meet, and then they’re kissing again. It doesn’t last long, just a few seconds, but to Eddie it feels like an eternity (in the best possible way).

When they finally pull apart, Richie actually meets his eyes this time, and the idiot still looks uncertain. For a single, excruciating second, Eddie wonders if he somehow read the situation wrong. Had he just fucked up?

But then, Richie is grinning all the way up to his eyes, and Eddie can’t help but return the gesture. He gets a giddy feeling in his chest that he’d never felt with anyone but Richie.

”Is my mom still a better kisser than me?” Eddie asks incredulously, and Richie laughs.

”Definitely,” He says, causing Eddie to scrunch his nose in disgust, “But I think we can find the time for you to practice.”

Eddie feels his face flush at that, and Richie smirks and reaches his hand up to pinch Eddie’s cheek.

”Cute,” he murmurs, which only intensifies the heat in his face, and Eddie quickly pulls his face out of Richie’s grasp.

”Fuck off,” He mutters, but he’s smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> so this is my first fic on here and it’s just some random thing i thought about and i wanted to write a fic so here i am. it’s also my first reddie fic so its a bit ooc but i’m trying


End file.
